A Special Place To Meet
by FabulousandDevious
Summary: A little girl finds a tiger by the side of the road.


Jenny Ashland walked down the street, humming to herself and skipping. Jenny was six years old, very energetic, and a lover of mischief. She was on the edge of the highway, heading home to her dinner. The cars whooshed past her, heading towards unknown destinations.

At first, she had been wary of the speeding vehicles, but eventually she realized that she was safe from getting hit, as she was on the grass on the other side of the guardrail.

It was the first time she had ever traveled the side of the highway alone. Her parents and her lived in town, on the other side of the woods. The woods let out to the highway, but she was forbidden from going there. This was the first time she was breaking the rule.

In her old home, they had lived on the country side and cars were rare sightings. She had hated it there. It was boring.

When they moved to their current home, she had been pretty disappointed to find that their backyard was just the woods. She had been hoping they would find a home in a suburban neighborhood, where she could make some friends. She was out of luck, though.

But, she soon discovered that on quiet nights she could hear the faint beeping of cars coming from somewhere beyond the woods. After much pestering to her parents, they admitted that a highway lay beyond the mass of trees. But, as mentioned, they forbade her from seeking it out.

Their rule, of course, had been blatantly ignored after she promised that she was "just exploring the woods".

Jenny stared in silent awe at the different cars as they sped past her. Big trucks, little convertibles, mini vans, station wagons, all kinds in all different colors. She let her hand lazily trace the guard rail. She knew that she shouldn't stare for too long. She had a curfew.

She turned around to head back into the woods when a voice called out to her.

"Hello."

A moment of panic seized her, thinking it was one of her parents who had followed her. She turned to the voice, which had come from several feet away.

Lying next to the road, dirty and torn, was a tiger.

She relaxed, seeing that it wasn't her parents, and trotted over. She was smart enough to know that she shouldn't approach people she didn't know. That was dangerous.

But, it was okay. This was a tiger, not a person.

She stopped next to him and looked down. He was quite large, though it appeared time had not done him good. His orange fur was dirty and matted, not to mention ripped in some places. His bottom legs were missing, along with one of his arms. He had lost an eye.

She was kind enough not to point this out though. Cats were proud creatures and probably did not take kindly to flaws pointed out to them.

"Hello." he said again.

Remembering her manners, she spoke back to him just like she had been taught. "Hello. My name is Penny Ashland. I'm six years old."

"Nice to meet you, Penny. My name is Hobbes." he said warmly.

He reached out his paw, which she crouched down to shake. She giggled when he sneezed and a little cloud of dust escaped his mouth.

"Forgive me, I haven't had a chance to bathe myself yet." Hobbes said apologetically.

Penny wrinkled her nose. "I hate baths."

He chuckled deeply. "You wouldn't be the first. But, when something you need is taken away from you, only then you notice how much you really wanted it in the first place."

He sneezed again, once again creating a little dirt cloud. Penny smiled and helped him sit up, so that his face wasn't pressed into the dirt any more. He grinned widely.

"Thank you, Penny. I've never been a big fan of the taste of dirt."

She smiled at him, sitting across from him with her legs crossed. She examined him up and down, noticing his frayed edges.

"How come you were just lying there, Hobbes?" she asked.

His eye lit up and his whiskers twitched in excitement. "I'm waiting for someone!"

The way he was so enthusiastic, she could only figure that this person was very special to Hobbes. "Who?" she said curiously.

"My best friend." he said nostalgically. "He should be coming soon."

"Oh. What's he like?"

Hobbes chuckled. "Well, to be honest, he's a bit stupid. And childish. And mischievous. But, he's also reliable. And creative. And funny. We've always gotten into so much trouble together."

"What kind of trouble?" she laughed.

"Well, one time we accidentally sold the earth to a couple of aliens for some leaves. Then, we turned him into an elephant. And we created some killer snowmen that almost took over the world." he said very seriously.

Her eyes widened in awe. "What happened?"

He smirked, glad for an audience to impress. "Well, once the aliens had found out about winter, they demanded we refund them. But, the leaves had already been thrown away."

"Oh no! What did you do?"

"Well, me being the _clever_ one, gave the aliens some stockings to keep them warm. Then they left happy, and the earth was saved."

Jenny laughed and clapped her hands. Hobbes grinned and gave a little bow, saying "thank you, thank you, you're too kind". She leaned forward expectantly, her dinner forgotten, and insisted he finish the rest of the stories.

Twisting his whiskers happily, Hobbes agreed. For the next hour, they sat together and Hobbes recounted tales of his adventures. Jenny sat with rapt attention, listening reverently. He told her all about their travels to mars, and through time to the Jurassic, and their magic carpet ride, and the football games, the Calvinball games, the noodle incident, the cloning disaster, the transmignofier, the evil babysitter, the hungry monsters under the bed, and their exploring of the woods.

She carefully rocked as Hobbes stared off into the distance with a peaceful look on his face. Every time he told another story, she noticed the way his whole being would light up when he spoke of his friend.

"You say he's coming soon?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm sure. I haven't been waiting that long, I think. Yes, he should be here quickly."

she smiled in excitement. "Can I meet him?"

"Oh, I'd love to introduce you!" he said, suddenly smirking. "He's not a big fan of girls, though. The foolish boy."

She made herself more comfortable, placing her hands on her lap. "I'll wait for him with you."

"Sure." he responded.

They fell into a silence as they waited. With no way to tell the time, she couldn't tell how many hours passed. But, the sun kept sinking lower and lower into the sky, darkening things around them. The woods began to look dark and foreboding, and the cars began switching on their headlights.

Jenny nervously looked around her, unsure what to do. She wanted to stay and wait with Hobbes, but she wasn't a big fan of the dark and she was getting scared. She certainly didn't want to venture through the forest in the pitch-black.

"Is he going to get here soon, Hobbes?" she nearly whispered.

He nodded and his tail swished. "Yes, it will be soon. I know he will get here very soon."

She anxiously looked around to see if anyone was approaching. She couldn't see far, but no one was in sight.

"Where is he?" she said out loud.

Hobbes looked distant. "Well... I'm not sure. He said he would meet me here, though."

"Did he say anything at all about where he was going?"

"I don't think so. All I remember was that there was days when he would come home really mad, and say that he hated school and life. He said that everyone made fun of him and his clothes and how he had zits. Sometimes he just broke things, and sometimes he just cried. And sometimes he yelled at me. Then I guess he got really sick, because he started taking a lot of medicine. It must have been a pretty bad cold, 'cause he was always taking more and more medicine. And he started bringing girls into his room and they did weird things. Whenever I asked about it, he just ignored me. Then he didn't talk to me for a while."

Hobbes looked down sadly, and Jenny implored him to go on.

"Then what happened?" she said.

"Well, like I said, he was taking a lot of medicine 'cause he was sick. One night he came into his room all weird, so I figured he must not be feeling good. Then he was sick all over the bed. Then he just sat on his bed, staring at the floor, not doing anything. He did that for a while." he stopped to take a breath. "Then, all of a sudden, he comes over to me and picks me up. And I was so happy because he hadn't spoken to me for so long. Then he petted me for a while, not saying anything. I was so excited because I figured he had a knew plan cooked up for us. I kept asking him if we were going to play outside, when all of a sudden he smiles at me. Then he said, 'I'll meet you on the other side, Hobbes.', and I was confused. Then he put me in his toy chest, and I heard him leave the house and drive away."

Jenny cocked an eyebrow. "Other side?"

Hobbes smiled knowingly. "I was confused, at first, about what he meant. But then, I realized that we often talked about what lay beyond the other side of the highway behind our house. So I figured that he meant for the two of us to meet here and we could go explore. He probably went off to get supplies for our journey."

she broke out in a smile. "So that's why you two are meeting here!"

"Yup!" Hobbes said, smiling in return.

Her eyes glanced at the horde of speeding cars. "How did you get across the highway?"

"Well, after he drove away, I waited for a while in the toy bin. I would have left, but I didn't know how to operate the latch on the box, so I was stuck. Luckily, his mom opened it for me and took me out. Then she put me in the station wagon and we drove across the highway until we parked over there." he said, pointing to a spot a few feet away from him.

Jenny looked over his shoulder to see where he was pointing. On the side of the rode, sticking out of the grass for whatever reason, was a small white cross. It had several flowers scattered around it and something scrawled across it. She couldn't read yet, but she knew the first letter was "C".

"She put me down next to it and she was crying. I figured out why, though. He must have told her that me and him were going to travel off and would probably never return. She was nice enough to bring me to our meeting spot, though. I'll miss her." he said, letting out a breath.

"Wow." Jenny said, leaning back on her hands. "What happened to your arm and legs?"

"Some animals came and chewed me up a bit while I was waiting." he said, wincing slightly.

"Oh, my!" she said, hands flying to her mouth. "Did it hurt?"

He chuckled and flashed a smug grin. "Nah. I'm tough."

She glanced around again, hoping to see Hobbes' friend approaching. Unfortunately, there was still no sign of him. She turned back to Hobbes with a worried expression.

"You don't suppose he stood you up, do you?" she hesitantly asked.

His single eye flashed. "Of course not! He would never do that. He's not always punctual, but I know he'll come. He always does."

Hobbes looked distant again, silently repeating those words over and over. "He'll come... he'll come..."

She was about to reach out to him when a hand suddenly clamped around her arm. She let out a scream of fear, and thrashed around, trying to make the person let go.

"Penny!" Hobbes said.

In her struggle to free herself, she turned to look at the person who had her captive. To her surprise, she looked into the angry face of her father. He looked incredibly mad, and was gripping her fiercely. Her fearful voice stuttered out words.

"D-daddy..."

"Do you have any idea what time it is? How worried your mother and I were? Did we not tell you to stay away from the goddamned highway?"

"B-but... I..." she stammered nervously as her father shouted.

"I don't want to hear it." he growled. "When we get home, your mother is going to talk to you, too. And you're grounded. Now get up, we're going."

He pulled her forcefully to her feet and she began to panic slightly. She strained against his arm and reached out to Hobbes.

"Daddy, stop! I need to wait with Hobbes!" she said as she tried to capture his paw.

Hobbes managed to lean forward so that their hands touched and he smiled in relief. This was in vain, however. Her father tore her hand away.

"Don't touch that filthy toy, Jenny! I'm at my wits end and I don't want to hear any more of your talking." he spat angrily as he began dragging her away.

"Sir, please! Let me..." Hobbes said as he tried to follow them, but lost his balance and fell into the dirt.

He coughed and lifted his head off the ground to stare at Jenny's retreating form. The father did nothing to acknowledge Hobbes in any way.

Jenny looked back at Hobbes with sadness all over her face. Her face welled up and she began to cry as her father took her away. Hobbes felt a pang of sympathy for her. He knew just how scary parents could be when they worried about their children. Jenny's father just cared about her.

Still, it had been nice to have the company.

Hobbes tried to push himself back into a sitting position, but his arm was too weak. All he could do was temporarily lift himself up, only for his arm to give out and for him to flop back down. He sighed and resigned to watch the cars zoom past. They were all so fast. He hoped that if his best friend was driving out there, he was being careful. You could get killed on that highway.

He was once again left to his thoughts now that he was alone. He wished he had a watch. All he had to tell time was the moon and the sun, and he had never been very good at reading those. He probably only had a little longer to wait, though. It wouldn't be long before they met up and went off.

He felt his eyelid grow heavy, and sleep began to overtake him. He smiled, knowing that he would dream about their adventures to come.

Yes, only a little longer. And then they would be together.


End file.
